Monday, October 26, 2009

Day 2 of the USGP in KY finished with nearly the same result as Day 1.....11th place. This time things seemed completely opposite though. I had a much better start and was top 10 off the pavement. Half way through the lead lap I found myself trailing the lead group and by the end of the lap I was leading the chase group. A few laps later I bridged up to Troy and Frattini with Marko, McGrath, and Bergman in tow. With 3 or 4 laps to go it was down to 3 of us racing for 9th. I led the entire last lap hoping for a mistake by one of the other 2 riders, but no luck and didn't have anything left for the sprint.

Overall it was a great weekend with some great racing. I like the trip down to KY and the spectators always seem to like me down there! Especially my mom!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Quick update from the road again....it was nice to be at home last weekend after 6 racing weekends in a row....now I'm at it again at the second round of the USGP in Louisville, KY. Had great legs yesterday, but a horrible start. AJM missed his pedal on the front row and as a dude who usually gets the wholeshot I lined up right behind him and instantly utilized the Rishi Grewal reverse drivetrain. I must have been in the 40's over the first barrier, but then soon started moving forward. I rode to 7th by the middle of the race and with 2 laps to go took a big crash. Frattini, Wicks, and Weighall passed me and I finished 10th...I'll take it...

Monday, October 12, 2009

The drive home last night was brutal.....immediately from the finish line to the car and a 7.5 hour drive home. Work this morning to get the shop back to normal after a fair amount of product went over to the WORS race this past weekend.

Andrea had an awesome race in Sheboygan and finished 4th with some really tough competition. I could tell she was ready to have a good race, but then she told me she was feeling sick Saturday morning. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I think she rode her best race of the year! I'm really happy for her to finish off the season with a great result. Maybe I can convince her to come to Iceman???

It's not official but I think I won the WORS Overall for the 3rd time! It's not official, but according to Don's math Andrea should move into 5th place overall in the series!

The Bio Wheels race was the last of 3 for the Cincinnati Cyclocross Festival....I finished 6th and Marko was 7th. It was kind of like doing a WCA or a WORS...just the 2 of us riding along. I lined up behind Marko and he didn't clip in right away. We both kind of got swarmed on the line. I'm pretty sure I had too much tire pressure and a small gap opened around the first 180 degree turn. Troy went to the front and killed it and the gap grew. I was chasing with Marko on my wheel the first lap. The second lap Marko came by me in the sand pit and started to help with the chase...2 corners later a little kid ran into the course and Mark was over the bars.....I think the kid would have been clear, but the dad yelled and the kid hesitated and that was it....I wasn't sure what to do and slowed up for a minute...once I saw Mark was back on the bike I started going and soon after he latched onto my wheel, but there was no way were closing the gap. We traded pulls for the next 6 or so laps and with 1 to go I got a small gap after the run when Marko couldn't clip in and held it to the finish.

I think I have raced 15 weekends in a row or at least it feels like it...so I'm looking forward to a week off....Thanks to Team Half Acre for holding the bike in the pits, thanks to Gear Grinder, Blue Bikes(which worked awesome all weekend), and Hyundai(32 MPG at 80mph saves some gas money) Easton/Bell, Crank Bros, and Oakley

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Much better today....I found my legs....maybe they were lost in blogger land and I asked for them and they showed up....

5th place and I was actually racing. Marko had another killer race in 3rd. He had an instant gap with the big dogs in the first 1/4 lap and was gone. I was in the chase group with Wells and Parbo. I thought we had dropped Parbo like 10 times, but he got me in the end. Wells was 6th.

Dinner was amazing. We even ran into my old neighborhood friend Bradley Palumbo at the Montgomery Inn! I went with Big Ted's Platter....Brisket, Ribs, and Pulled Pork on Jalepeno Pancakes and a sweet potato for dessert. Mmmmmm

Friday, October 09, 2009

That's the story of the Day #1 at the UCI International Cyclocross Fest in Cincinnati. It was a muddy one and a special thanks goes out to Karew for rocking the pits for me.....good thing I had an A bike and a B bike w/ sweet Easton wheel and Dugast Rhino tyres!

I had a pretty bad start and was overly cautious on the first off camber muddy section. As soon as I hit the next section though I was past 10 dudes and onto Molly's wheel.

I pretty much stayed 20 seconds behind him the entire race until he caught Troy on the last lap and had some extra motivation. I felt good in the mud, but no power on the climbs. Marko killed it finishing 4th....

The coolest part of the day was the custom number plates! Oh yeah and the 10oz Garbage Burger from Max & Irma's mmmm!

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Well after a weekend up at the cabin in Eagle River it's back at it....Cinncinati here I come....I can't wait for some more of this!

It was a pretty good weekend except for a few mechaincal problems at the race in Bear Paw. Andrea and I drove up to the cabin on Saturday for a relaxing evening. Slept in Sunday morning before making the 1 hour drive to Langlade. With lots of math going through my head trying to calculate WORS points I was ready to rock after a week of rest.

Marko was a no show and all the math went out the window....what I didn't calculate was the quick loss of air at the top of the first climb. I cracked my CO2 as I was riding down the double track and as soon as I found a good spot I quickly inflated the tire....it was weird to me that I heard the bead snap back into place....so I hopped on a started to chase. 15 minutes later the leaders were in sight again, but my tire was again down to 10psi....this time I stopped and fixed it proper with a new tube....small problem though, not enough air to seat the tire on...oh well...so I did the rest of the race with 20psi and 2 big wobbles in the tire....finished 6th. Andrea finished 5th. We both really liked the more technical course! Andrea also won Fall Color Fest 20miler the weekend before while I was racing the USGP!

With one race to go in the WORS points I am winning and Andrea looks like she is in 6th overall. We'll see what happens in Sheboygan. After the race it was back to the cabin to enjoy the fall colors and watch the Steelers! I'm going to stay with my good buddy Karew down in OH so it should be a good weekend!